Deborah O'dowd

Fashion Fighter: Cheeks-a-saurus-rex-a-maxamus Deborah O'dowd

Seven-year-old Kylie "Cheeks" Acosta is the youngest of three girls, and there is another baby on the way. Cheeks gave herself another nickname when, at four years old, she dressed up in as many clothes as she could fit and announced she was "Fashion Fighter", a sort of clothing superhero. But Cheeks doesn't want to be called Fashion Fighter anymore; she has more important issues on her mind. A smart and curious second-grader, Cheeks meets her biological father, whom she calls R-Daddy, for the first time. She discovers that he lost his legs in the war in Iraq. When she hears about soldiers and innocent children dying, Cheeks feels sad, frustrated, and anxious to do something about it. Rallying her fellow students, Cheeks starts a campaign to educate people about the war. She discovers that not everyone agrees with her, which helps Cheeks make sense of her own growing beliefs about the world around her. But the war is only one of Cheeks' concerns-she has to fight another battle of her own right close to home. Readers will be rooting for Cheeks as she valiantly stands up for what she knows in her heart to be right.